


Try Guys Try Catching a Criminal

by Anonymous



Category: Buzzfeed The Try Guys (Web Series)
Genre: Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Fake Episode, Gen, Implied Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV Second Person, Reader-Insert, based off personal experience unfortunately, i think its weird too, technically???, yeah this isnt happy yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:20:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: This story is based off of my personal experiences with having a friend get roofied. In 2016 I started writing this to deal with the trauma of the event. The first chapter is all I had dug up from the depths of my hard drive. The second chapter is my attempt to satisfactorily conclude it two years later. Contains dead dove, sorry.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off of my real life. I was Eugene in this situation. In 2016 I was at a party with one of my friends. She was an adult and I was still a child; I was a young teenager. Someone tripped and left their drink on our table. She drank it after like ten minutes and I had to drag her to the hospital because someone had roofied her. This fic was written to work through my trauma emerging from the event.

Shing!

You look over at your phone from where you are endeavoring to write an essay. Buzzfeed put out a new Try Guys video! Awesome! You needed a break anyways. After saving your nearly empty document, you quickly opened up your browser and clicked on the YouTube bookmark.

The video in your 'Recommended' section was titled, "Try Guys Try Catching a Criminal (You can help)" and the thumbnail only featured plain black text on a white background reading, "Help us." This is interesting. Certainly a change from the usual of Eugene's clickbait face. And without further ado, you clicked the video and prepared to be entertained.

From the get-go, this promises to be different. Instead of friendly music and funny banter, Zach, Keith, and Eugene are standing solemnly and silently in front of their traditional white background. After a few seconds, Keith starts to speak.

"Normally on Try Guys we like to be funny and easygoing, but sometimes we have to be serious."

"Right now is unfortunately one of those times," Zach continues, "and the reason for the change is because of something that happened a couple days ago."

The video sped backwards through images of people sitting on a couch to flashing lights and grinning faces at a club to a very familiar picture, the four friends smiling and laughing through an introduction.

"Hi! We're the Try Guys!"

"And today," exclaimed Ned, "we're gonna have a drinking contest!"

The video cuts to black and then back to the original footage of the friends, minus one, being serious.

"All four of us are responsible adults and aren't stupid, but there are some shitty fucking people in the world." Eugene pauses and takes a breath. The camera zooms towards him and stops so you can see him from the waist up.

"The reason Ned isn't here with us right now is because some fucker roofied him."

You hit the space bar and sit there for a moment. What the actual fuck. Some prank? You exit full screen and click open the description. Links to tip hotlines and to a description of the criminal. You scroll down to the comments and see expressed among the few comments similar sentiments. "What the fuck?" "This has to be a joke." "Is this for real?" Just to be sure, you check the date, and sure enough, it's still June, not April.

You return to the video and push play, bracing yourself for the worst to come. The video is quickly spiraling you into a pit of depression. It cuts away from the three friends to white and black bullet points fade in about date rape and drugs. You aren't even registering the actual statistics. Finally, the image changes to show the bubbly quartet, presumably before whatever happened.

"So the way that this is gonna work is we'll be split into two teams and whoever has to go home first loses! Keith and Zach will be a team and Eugene and I will be the other."

A few beats of silence, "This sounds like a horrible idea!" Zach exclaims in his traditional old man fashion.

The picture switches to show Ned on a couch between his wife and Eugene, with the other two friends in armchairs nearby.

"I remember that we were shooting a Try Guys video and were were going to have a drinking contest? I know that Eugene and I went out to dinner first so that we wouldn't be drinking on empty stomachs."

While the blonde man was speaking, the visual changed to show the two clinking their wine glasses together at a fancy restaurant, shot on one of their phones. They were smiling brightly at the screen as they both leaned across the table to get into frame. It changed back to the couch scene as Ned shifted over to lean on his wife.

"Keith and Zach had already gone to the bar across the street because they wanted to start earlier to last longer? I just remember that they had already left that bar by the time we got over there."

Again, the image changed to another shot on a phone, this time of a grainy, shaky, obviously zoomed video of a blonde man and a dark haired man sitting inside a nice restaurant. The video zoomed out to show a street and the camera swung around to point at Keith's laughing face with Zach gagging at a beer behind him. Keith was saying something but, like before, the audio was muted in favor of what Ned was saying. The screen cut to white again.

You paused the video again as more statistics faded into view, returning to the comments. There was already an edited comment with multiple responses reading things along the lines of "what the hell is your deal you sick fuck?!" so it doesn't get any better as far as you can tell. And, as Eugene was Ned's drinking partner, it most likely involves him.

You get up and grab a bottle of water from the fridge as you prepare yourself for the shitstorm to come, both in the video and in the comments section. This certainly is a major distraction. A distraction from all the good things life has to offer to be exact. You sit back down in front of your computer and return to full screen once more. You swallow the water in your mouth before you hit the space bar so you don't try to spit it out. The black text fades in and out, you not retaining what it said for the second time. Ned starts to speak and he looks over at Eugene.

"We drank a bottle of wine between us and then went to the bar where we both had like... seven drinks? Then I tripped and the bartender started holding our drinks back so we had to leave." The visual had changed to Ned, with a lime in his mouth, drawing a sixth tally mark on his arm alongside sharpie marks using a line of salt. It cut back to the couch. "That's as much as I remember." He was looking at Eugene expectantly. The dark haired man shifted and sat up straighter.

"Yeah, that's what happened. Then we went to the club around the block afterwards and that's where the guy tried to get you." The scene had once more changed to a phone recording from that awful night. Ned was recording in portrait mode, smiling brilliantly with his arm around Eugene's shoulders. The other man was saying something and the camera shook as the blonde laughed and spun around the phone to show the front of a club, flashing lights spilling from the open doors.

You pause the video again to take a swig of water. You don't want to miss anything. Even though you'll probably watch the video multiple times, the first time through is most important. On the couch again, the taller man started speaking.

"So we go up to the bar and you decided to buy another bottle of wine because they were selling it for some reason. We sat at a table and started drinking it." Eugene and Ned again clinking their wine glasses, this time with the backdrop of multicolored strobe lights and dancing people. Ned shifted on the couch and grabbed Ariel's hand with both of his own.

"After we got like two thirds of the way through the bottle, this guy shows up. He 'tripped and fell' towards us," as he spoke he made air quotes, "and put his own glass on our table to get his balance back or something. Then he apologized and apparently saw someone he recognized because he just went off into the crowd and disappeared. He left his drink and you went to go give it back to him, but after like five minutes you came back and drank it."

After he finished his sentence, the video changed back to footage from inside a club, this time with audio. Over the loud bass was the sound of hysterical laughter as Ned tried to recover from something Eugene said. Once he calmed down, the camera was turned around to show the darker haired man gesturing at the camera with his wine glass, a smug smile on his face. The phone was flipping again, and against the backdrop of blurry rainbow strobe lights, a figure could be seen stumbling out of the crowd.

"Oh shit! Sorry!"

The man convincingly collapsed against the table, setting down a wine glass as he gripped the edge. Before his face could come into focus, Eugene dropped the phone so it was pointing at the tableedge. You could see that this person was wearing white latex gloves, and if that wasn't a dead giveaway for suspicious drug related activity, nothing was.

The mystery person spun on their feet, and with one gloved hand trailing behind on the table, the same voice called out, "Hey, James, stay right there you asshole!" The hand left the edge and Eugene lifted the phone to show his retreating back. The video turned to Ned and the incredulous look on his face before the camera shook with giggles and Ned, nearly crying with laughter, picked up the wine glass and attempted to follow him into the crowd.

The video cut to landscape mode of the blonde man emerging from the crowd with the wine glass still in his hand. He fell back into his seat and mouthed something like 'finders keepers' before emptying the glass and clinking it against his other, still-half-full glass before draining that too. The video cut out as Eugene's arm reached across the table with a sharpie in hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is my attempt to wrap up the first part. Please keep in mind that this is the product of me trying to work on something I had forgotten about in 2016. I also tried to keep my style consistent with what it was but I doubt I did. Thanks for reading this far!

You hit the space bar again and lean back in your chair, breathing out a sigh. What. The. Fuck. You just sit there for a bit, needing a bit of a breather. Dragging your phone into your lap, you open up the YouTube app and start reading the comments so you don’t have to refresh your laptop. You know the comments are gonna be awful, but it can’t be worse than the video, right?

And bingo. There it is, the comment here to prove you wrong. Potentially the worst, most insensitive comment ever. “Did anyone else notice that the guy put down the drink in front of Eugene? Honestly, can’t blame him! Lol!!” Posted 23 seconds ago. You immediately dislike it and close your phone, at long last returning from your ‘break.’ You slide down in your chair, take a shot of water, and bat at the space bar half heartedly.

This time, white text fades in on the black of your screen, but, as twice previous, you pretty much ignore what it says. On the couch, Eugene looks decidedly angry now, hands fisted in the fabric of his pants. Ned is resting his head on Ariel’s shoulder, blankly staring down at their entwined fingers.

“After half an hour or so, you tried to get up and almost knocked over the table.”

In the video displayed as Eugene spoke, Ned looked incredibly out of it as he shakily pushed on the table surface and then unceremoniously cashed back down. The video was immediately turned off, presumably so the man recording could help his friend.

“At first, I thought you were just really drunk, but you were acting way different than you usually do while drunk.” Ned looked over at Eugene with wide eyes as the dark haired man kept speaking. Eugene glanced over quickly and went back to staring straight ahead. You could feel how upset they all were through the screen. “You were super confused and loopy. You were really quiet and really, really scared. It was fucking awful.” He spat the last few words and it cut to black once more.

More words appeared on screen. However, you actually read them this time. Surveillance cameras around the bar recorded the man setting his drink on the table. In faded grainy, black and white security footage, time stamped around midnight. A red circle briefly highlighted a table in the upper right corner of the frame where two people, one light haired and one dark haired, were sitting and drinking.

After a few seconds, a body freed itself from the throng of people and lunged at their table. It whirled around and stalked back into the crowd, disappearing without a trace. The light haired person stood up with something in hand and attempted to follow. The tape fast forwarded, slowing to normal when the time stamp indicated about seven minutes had passed. The same light haired figure reappeared and sat back down, tilting back their head. The dark haired person extended an arm and grabbed their companion’s wrist, pulling it into the center of the table.

The footage sped forward again, stopping 25 minutes later. The light haired person slumped onto the table and their drinking partner leaped out of their seat to help. They placed a hand on each of the other’s shoulders and helped them back into their chair. It sped through another two minutes of the two most likely talking before stopping as the dark haired person set the other person’s arm over their shoulder, grabbed them around the middle and walked them towards the camera. As they approached, it soon became painfully apparent, even through the shitty security footage, that the two figures were Eugene and Ned.

You paused the video again. Everyone knows date rape and date rape drugs are a thing, and you know it could happen to anybody, even someone you know, but it hasn’t really been an actual issue in your mind until just now. You honestly don’t even watch the Try Guys religiously, gust every once in a while when you need a pick-me-up or distraction. And yet, here you are, sitting in your bedroom at your desk about to freak out over the fact that, holy shit, this person who you are familiar with got fucking roofied! What the fuck! What the fuck.

You paused for a few minutes, staring into space and finishing off your water. When you go to take a swig and come up dry, you regretfully set it aside and readjust yourself in your seat. You push the space bar once again.

“And then you brought be to the hospital?” Ned asked. He was practically laying on his wife at that point, which, while adorable, was indicative of how he was feeling. Eugene turned his head to watch him as he responded.

“Yeah, I practically carried you to the ER, which by some fucking miracle was only like a block and a half away. Nice location choice.” The joke, while somewhat crude, cracked a smile out of both you and Ned.

“Yeah, I totally planned all of this out!” Ned snarked, not unkindly. The camera zoomed out to include Zach and Keith, who you had totally forgot about. They both wore expressions hovering somewhere between grave and pissed.

“So, what did this fucker look like?” Keith started rolling the ball in a new direction. Eugene sobered up as the image flipped to grey. In a grid pattern on the blank field, appeared images from the phone recording and the security recording. There was the out of focus image of the man’s face, enhanced as much as possible, which wasn’t all that much. There was the crystal clear image of his body from collarbones down, clad in a neon yellow and black checkered hoodie. There was the image of his back, from the brownish unidentifiable hair color (stupid rainbow lights) to the black skinny jeans. There was the image of a grainy figure unobfuscated by the dancing people moments before “falling,” showing off his stature and build. And finally, there was an image of a sketch (done by one of their coworkers, an annotation completely unnecessarily announced) of the man’s face, described by Eugene. He spoke over this collage of pictures.

“He was probably a bit younger than Ned and I, but my height, maybe slightly taller than me. He was very white, like the fresh fallen fucking snow, probably only a few shades darker than his stupid gloves. His face was very slim and, like, narrow, but not beaky, I remember. I couldn’t tell if he was muscley or not because of that big pullover hoodie he was wearing. His hair was buzzed really short. Clean shaven, and he might have had dark eyes. The lights were flashing, I was tipsy and I didn’t know I’d need to memorize his face. Sorry guys.” Eugene sounded genuinely upset about his memory failing under completely understandable circumstances.

While Eugene described the perpetrator, white text faded in under the pictures, listing phone numbers and hotlines to call or email if you have any information. Zach spoke up, “If anyone in the audience knows who this person is, or maybe where they acquired these very illegal substances to drug people with, please contact either the tip lines we will provide you or your local law enforcement if it’s in your area.” Annotations appeared over the numbers, giving you a handy way to access the tip website, which you would if you had any fucking clue what was going on.

You nudged your mouse and saw the video was drawing to a close. The video faded to white for the final time, and more black text was slapped over it. You made a conscious effort to read it. This video was filmed, edited, and published according to Ned Fulmer’s request. The couch once more, this time with only Ned, sitting up ramrod and speaking directly into the camera.

“I really hope this video informs those of you who had no idea this is something that happens that it fucking does. And it can happen to anyone. This is a real issue that plagues the whole world. And to those who have gone through this like I did or had to endure even worse, just know you are not alone. It is not your fault,” he made fidgety motions with his hands, “and there wasn’t anything we could do. Some people are just the scum of the earth who want to prey on the entirely helpless, and if they have to drug you to achieve it, then so be it. Damn the consequences, right? Anyways,” smoothing his hands over his legs, “this is what happened to me. Thank you for watching this to the end.” Fade to black. Finally the replay icon pops up, signifying the end of the video.

You let out a hysterical giggle and folded your hands behind your head. Goddammit. There goes the rest of your week. You shoved away from your desk and grabbed another water bottle out of the fridge. Draining it in a few chugs, you unlocked your phone, returning to the hellscape of the comments section. Your computer was shut off and you collapsed onto your bed to suffer for a while. You must have fallen asleep, because you woke up to another notification.

Shing!

Buzzfeed realized a new video: Try Guys Try Catching A Criminal (he’s been arrested!)

Involuntarily, you felt a smirk tugging on your mouth. You look at your computer, where you were writing an essay before all this started. Is it too late to change your major to criminal justice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to take a quote from this fic and modify it a bit for my closing message:
> 
> _I really hope this work informs those of you who had no idea this is something that happens that it does. And it can happen to anyone. This is a real issue that plagues the whole world. And to those who have gone through this like my friend and I did or had to endure even worse, just know you are not alone. It is not our fault and there wasn’t anything we could do. Some people are just the scum of the earth who want to prey on the entirely helpless, and if they have to drug you to achieve it, then so be it. This is what happened to me and my friend. Thank you for reading this to the end._


End file.
